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Saturday, July 23, 2016

Hi everyone~! I am back from my five-day trip to Paris! Despite the heat the trip was loads of fun and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, so let’s start~!
On Thursday July 7th my mom and I woke up early and collected our last things. For some reason both my mom and I had really procrastinated our packing, resulting in us having to pack and prepare everything in two days. Not very wise. ^^’ Luckily, we ended up not forgetting anything important! My dad drove us to the train station and we said goodbye. We dragged our suitcases (mine was really big thanks to my Lolita outfit, ahem) to the right platform and waited for the train to Amsterdam. We had deliberately chosen an early train since our railway company too often has troubles, but the train arrived perfectly on time and we arrived way in advance of our departure time to Paris.
We spent our time sitting on a bench and waiting for over an hour for our Thalys train. But I much prefer to be early than having to stress (duh). My mom and I wondered whether the security would be better now. There have been two very dangerous incidents involving Thalys and the company promised there would be better security and checks.

Waiting for our train to Paris.

Lots of people collected at our platform, but most of them took the train to Belgium only. Finally, our train arrived and my mom and I walked up to the door to the right coupé. But was there someone to check on us? Was there some way of luggage check? Not at all! I must say I was quite outraged! Dangerous things have happened and Thalys does nothing!? We somehow managed to get our suitcases into the train and onto the luggage racks. I installed myself, but my mom wanted to go and see whether she could find a train conductor. She soon returned and told me she had spoken to some police officers on the platform and they said they “kept an eye out, but everyone who got into the train looked like a tourist”. -_- I have no words honestly. We have made complaints already, but I sure am not done yet.
Anyway, let’s continue with positive things! The train departed on time and soon my mom and I ate our sandwiches and cookies while enjoying the view from our window.

On our way to Paris~! ☆

It was quite nice to take the train again after taking the bus last year. We talked for a bit and after a while we fell asleep! We slept for quite a while, making our journey a bit shorter and after 3 hours and 20 minutes after our depart in Amsterdam we arrived in Paris!

Back at Gare du Nord at last!

I was so happy to be back at Gare du Nord! I immediately heard the familiar sounds and of course: the French language! We quickly took a selfie and then went on our way.

Our first selfie in Paris. ♥

Our first goals of the day were getting to our hotel and acquiring new Navigo passes, as our previous ones had expired. We had decided on getting to our hotel first, but when I checked the queue in front of the public transport ticket desk it wasn’t long at all! So we decided to go there first. I asked the ticket desk lady in French for two tickets and she answered me in French too. Later I realised how much more easy I switch to French for official instances these das (I used to be so shy)! We paid and received our tickets and soon we could leave the queue again.
While I was doing some research upfront (I mean, I did do some work) I had found out Navigo passes now extend to five zones instead of two! Which is great, because that means you can now travel to Versailles, Disneyland and the Japan Expo with the Navigo too!
My mom and I took our suitcases up the escalator and walked out of the station. This year we had booked a hotel across from Gare du Nord, a completely different area from where our favourite hotel is located (which is Montmartre). My mom is unfortunately not doing very well: she gets tired quite fast, her knees hurt easily and she can’t walk well anymore. The Parisian metro has thousands of steps of stairs and dragging your luggage to your hotel up and down them is always torture. So we decided to book a hotel really close to the Thalys arrival and depart station, which made things a lot easier! Not only for my mom, but for me too. ^^
After leaving the station, I look right and left and soon spotted our hotel’s sign. It was honestly right across the station and we only had to cross one road!

Our hotel! We didn’t know at that moment, but our room would be the one with the slightly open window on the third floor. ^^

We entered our hotel lobby and walked up to the desk. The guy behind the counter was not only incredible friendly, but he was also really cute aaah! *o* ♥ We forgot to ask his name until our last day in Paris though, haha! He was so nice. :3
The desk guy told us to our great surprise that our room was already ready for us! So we could already take our suitcases upstairs and see our room. For some reason unknown to us, the friendly desk guy had upgraded us free of charge to a more spacious room, which really came in handy during the upcoming days and which was incredibly nice of course! We took the tiny elevator up to the third floor and dragged our suitcases up the few steps, after which we entered room 316. The room was so nice! There was a lot of space, a bed, a desk and two windows.

Our hotelroom for the next couple of days.

When we checked the view, my mom and I squealed in unison. Our view was right upon Gare du Nord! It was a-ma-zing! You know how in movies when someone is on Paris they always have a view upon the Eiffeltower (which is pretty much impossible). Well for a moment I felt like that. XD

Our view to the left, the middle and to the right. *o*

We were really happy with our room, despite the default in the bed (which could be easily fixed; one of the bed posts was loose) and the fact there was no shower curtain in the bath tub (like, why would not install that!?). ^^
We installed some of our things, got freshened up and then went on our way to enjoy Paris! Our next goal of the day: visiting the new Angelic Pretty shop that had opened for the first time right that morning! I admit that I would have loved to have been present at the opening, but it was just not possible. But being able to visit it on opening day was also really special, plus I wouldn’t have to wait for an unknown amount of long time, so that was something positive. :)
Despite our plan of trying to take the bus more, my mom and I decided to take the metro. Using our Navigos felt so cool and familiar!
I thought we had to transfer at Les Halles, but it turned out we had to transfer at station Châtelet: The one station I wanted to avoid. ^^’ Châtelet is a huge station with lots of stairs and long hallways and in order to spare my mom a bit, I wanted to try and stay away from this station during our trip. Go me. And as I feared, we got lost, had to walk around and take multiple stairs causing my mom to having to sit down and use her inhaler. I know I couldn’t exactly help it, but I felt so bad…
After my mom felt better, we continued our way and finally arrived a station Tuileries.

Station Tuileries suddenly got a whole new meaning for Lolitas!

We exited the station, walked up some stairs and arrived at the Rue de Rivoli where there were lots of cars and lots of noise. Luckily, before we could go on, I felt a panic attack coming up! I’m sure you noticed the sarcasm there. -_- For a moment, the scare I got from my mom not feeling well, the heat (because yes, just like last year it was hot in Paris. Not almost 40° Celsius, but still) and the noise just got to me. A bit of water, some breathing exercises and a hug from my mom made everything better though. ^^
We entered the Rue St Roch and didn’t have to walk for long, because I immediately spotted the red storefront on the left side of the street. We had arrived at the new Angelic Pretty store!

The beautiful new Angelic Pretty store in Paris. ;___; ♥

The location for the shop is just amazing! It’s right next to the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre. It’s much more touristic, which is in a way a blessing and a curse I guess? But the store definitely won’t be overlooked easily!

As you can see by the big ferris wheel, the shop is right next to the Jardin des Tuileries.

The storefront looked amazing! The wood was painted stone red, but it might have been the colour the shop that had previously been located there had painted it. Maybe Angelic Pretty will repaint it, maybe not. Anyway, it looked quite nice! A simple Angelic Pretty sticker adorned the top of the shop. It looked a bit temporary to me, but I might be mistaken of course. ^^
The big shop window had the words ‘Angelic Pretty’ on it. In the window, three mannequins wearing Diner Doll, Strawberry Whip and Wrapping Cherry. The floor of the window was covered in Angelic Pretty bags and the typical vintage toys Angelic Pretty displays in all their stores. Everything looked so lovely!

The famous Angelic Pretty font finally back on a Parisian shop window again!

The bags in the shop window were just so cute! And once again the Lolita curse snuck in: you don’t like a dress until you see it in real life. Strawberry Whip is so gorgeous up close!

Three lovely red dresses adorning the shop window. ♥

Contrary to what I expected I didn’t cry, but I was overjoyed and excited to enter the store! There were quite a lot of people inside and everyone was wearing Lolita but me! x) Oh well, at least my bright pink dress matched the decor I guess! I was ready to go inside!

There was even an Angelic Pretty doormat!

The inside of the store was amazing! ♥ The shop was square shaped and not very big, plus it was packed with Lolitas. I could immediately tell the walls were wrapped in the same wallpaper as the shops in Japan: fancy prints in pink and lavender (which is probably referring to their two different labels). Angelic Pretty seems to want to pursue a bit more mature style in their shops, as their Laforet store recently underwent a makeover into their newer style as well. Anyway, back to the Parisian store. An absolutely gorgeous chandelier hung from the ceiling. In front of the wall facing the shop window there was the checkout desk. The two remaining, opposite walls both had two frame units/closets/whatever you call them with dresses hanging on hangers and bags on the shelves, a mirror in between. In the middle of the store was a table for accessories and a rack with more dresses. Along the shop window, behind the decoration and bags were socks and shoes stalled. Behind the checkout counter there was a changing room to the left and a storage room to the right. At the checkout there were two people: designer Asuka and the new shop’s manager: Taka-san, who was also present during the previous Tea Party as a translator. There was another shop staff member walking around tidying when it was necessary and more helping out around the checkout. That last girl seemed rather familiar and no wonder: she had been at the 2013 Tea Party! She was so nice, it was great seeing her again.
I made a fairly simple layout map for you. I hope this clarifies everything a bit. ^^

I made this layout especially for Charlie. 8D I hope you like it dear!

I showed my mom some pretty dresses, like Eternal Carnival and the navy Melty Sky JSK (which was much more beautiful than I had expected)! I tried to browse the goods as well as I could with all the other Lolitas in the store. I immediately spotted a beautiful pair of white socks with gold print and picked them up, since I was hoping to find a pair of socks for my Tea Party outfit.
After browsing the whole shop at least three times I think, I couldn’t find anything else I wanted to buy. I would have loved to buy a dress or something else big, but I didn’t have that much money and despite all the beautiful dresses around me none of them drew my particular interest. The lucky packs and awesome deals that had been there for the opening had of course all sold out, so I finally “gave up”. Then, all of a sudden, one of the shop ladies hung two dresses on the rack in the middle of the shop, the one I was standing right next to. They were a blue Baked Sweets Parade JSK and a mint Shadow Dream Carnival OP and apparently both were sets! For really nice prices! I didn’t care much for the Baked Sweets Parade dress, but I have liked Shadow Dream Carnival for a while now and the print looked so beautiful on this dress! I showed the dress to my mom and she really liked it too. I very seriously considered buying it, but I wasn’t quite sure it would look nice on me. I certainly wasn’t going to try it on with this heat, so I would have to hope it fit. Luckily the dress did have full back shirring and well. It was just so pretty! ;0;
Meanwhile, one of my friends came in! I was very happy to see Camélia and also asked her for advice on the dress (haha). Eventually, I decided to just go for it! =D
After a while, some other girls I knew showed up too! I was happy to talk for a little bit with Chloé and Yume and also Lou~! ♥ At least Lou wasn’t in Lolita, so I felt less alone haha. XD

Cute girls doing some cute shopping. :3

The line in front of the checkout was significantly shorter and many girls had actually left the store by now, so soon it was my turn. I arrived at the checkout and just wanted to calmly pay for my purchases and ask for my Tea Party tickets, but the shop ladies had a slightly different approach: do everything at the same time. x) It was very confusing to me to pay for my purchases, find my reservation email and fill in my birth date at the same time. ^^’ I would have much preferred to take things slowly, especially since there was no line behind me. Oh well. I did get to pick a gift though! I could choose between a postcard and pin set or a Dolly Cat pouch. Since I already owned the posted version of the postcard I went with the cute pouch. ^^
I was done paying, received my invitation and got thanked for my shopping when Mila and Marie arrived at the store. ♥ I was hoping to see Mila at the store, since she is one of the two French shop girls. ^^ It was great talking to the girls and I got to ask some questions about the shop and new releases and things I wanted to know, so that was really nice. :)
I left the store and my mom took some pictures of me in front of the shop.

Posing with my purchases. ^^

If you want to see more pictures of the store: I went back on our last day of our trip and took some pictures again which show a bit more of the shop. So keep an eye out. ^^ ♥
When we were leaving, my friends Eveline and Astrid were just arriving! Isn't that a coincidence? I wished them much fun exploring the shop. ^^
I said goodbye to everyone and my mom and I walked on to the other end of the street so I could get some money from the bank to give back to my mom. The pin machine in the Angelic Pretty shop wasn’t working unfortunately so my mom had lent me some money. Then we walked back through the Rue St Roch, into the candy store next to Angelic Pretty shop, La Cure Gourmande. This bright yellow shop looked quite familiar. Not surprising, since we had visited another shop of the same chain in Montmartre during one of our previous trips!

La Cure Gourmande.

My mom had spotted a lovely bright yellow cookie jar and wanted to show it to me, after which she bought it. We also chose some delicious-looking caramels to eat later. ♥

Isn’t the inside of this shop just amazing? *o*

We left the Rue St Roch and walked into the Rue de Rivoli, next to the Jardins des Tuileries. My mom showed me some touristic shops there where they sold cute things like trays. Before going on, my mom and I decided to have a drink somewhere, so we walked into the Jardin des Tuileries.

The amazing big ferris wheel for the summer fair in Jardin des Tuileries.

We immediately spotted a big tent restaurant that claimed to be cheap. They were very much not, but we wanted drinks and accepted the utterly ridiculous prices for once. x) My mom and I also both tried one of the caramels we just bought. They were so good, oh my God. *o*

Very focused pouring my drink. XD

Since we had spent such a long time doing what I liked, I asked my mom what she would like to do! I was expecting some kind of sightseeing, but her answer? Axes Femme! XD
We finished our glasses of coke and caramel and then walked back to the metro. We only needed to go a few stops further down one line, so that was okay. We soon arrived at stop Saint Paul and left the station, from where we walked through the cute streets of Le Marais, past the closed Princess Crêpe, to the Axes Femme shop.

Ready for some shopping at Axes Femme! ☆

To my non-surprise and great happiness there was a sale going on! Well, I was happy for my mom, because she was hoping to find something nice. During our Japan trip she had been a bit frustrated, because she couldn’t find anything to her liking. She was looking for a nice bag, so I followed my mom around while I took pictures.

The Parisian Axes Femme store honestly is so amazing. ♥

Soon my mom found two bags she liked and asked for my advice on which one to take. We compared for a bit and I gave my opinion (I liked the cream-coloured one better). I let her think about it while I explored the shop for a bit. I am sure there were a lot of beautiful cothes, but I deliberately didn’t look at anything up close. At Axes Femme I always fall in love with something and since I had just spent a lot of money I wanted to try and aoid ending up really liking something, haha!

Some of the beautiful clothes in Axes Feme.

I went downstairs and took some pictures of the room down there. I love how this shop has two floors, it’s just so cute! The room downstairs is really different from the upstairs room, creating a great contrast. ^^

The downstairs room of Axes Femme.

I walked around for a bit (still not looking too well at the clothing, haha) and took some pictures. I accidentally bumped a promotion poster off a mannequin in the process, whoops. ^^’ In my defence, it was very unstable. XD
I even sat down on the famous swing!

Trying out the famous and amazing swing at Axes Femme.

When I got back upstairs again my mom had decided on which bag she wanted (the cream-coloured one, yay). She sat down for a moment and said there hung a really pretty black lace bolero in one of the racks. I went to get it for her aaand I think you can guess where this is going… I fell in love! Well, I fell in love with the white lace bolero, not the black one. But it was so pretty and different! The bolero has to layers and is slightly longer. It will work perfect in and out of Lolita, I’m sure! It’s a little hard to explain what it looks like, I understand, but you can find a picture of it down this post or spot me showing it off in the video I made even further down below! ^^
My mom and I paid for our purchases and the lovely shop ladies put them into a bag for us. There were two bag options: a big paper bag and a small plastic one. Since my mom had a big purchase the shop girl put it in a big paper bag and asked whether my purchase could be added to it. But… then I wouldn’t receive a plastic bag. And… they were so pretty. So I asked for an extra bag after all, which was no problem. XD
Finally, we left the store and sat down on a ledge a couple of meters away for a bit of rest.

Shopping, shopping, shopping~! ♥

My mom and I rested for a while and discussed what to do next. We finally decided to go back to our hotel, have some dinner and maybe go see the Eiffeltower later.
After a while we got up, went back to the metro and returned to Gare du Nord. We decided to have dinner at… McDonald’s. On our first evening! How shameful… x)
Well, we were hungry okay?
It was a nice, simple and satisfying dinner.

Dinner at McDonald’s.

After finishing our dinner we went back to the hotel, where we decided not to go see the Eiffeltower after all since we were super tired. Instead, we stayed in and watched the soccer game. While we were in Paris, the European Championship was going in in France! That night it was Germany vs. France. It was really fun to watch it surrounded by people of the playing countries, since France won! Listening to the cheering outside was quite fun. :3
After the game was over we looked out of the window for a bit. It had slowly turned dark and the sounds of the city floated through our open windows. Actually, it was quite loud. XD But we liked it. ^^

Our evening view was also so nice!

Then we went to bed. It had been a long, but amazing day!

Purchases of the day

And to end this post with, here is the video I made about our adventures on our first day in Paris. I hope you will like it! ♥ Please take a look if you want!

Monday, July 18, 2016

For years one of the members of our Dutch Lolita community, Pamela, has organized Japanese fashion shows for big Dutch anime conventions. Unfortunately, I was never available due to school or other cicrcumstances. So, when Pamela announced she was doing another J-fashion show at Animecon, the largest annual anime festival in the Netherlands, I checked my agenda and this time I was able to go! So I volunteered and was picked to represent Sweet Lolita style. ^^
I decided to wear Fancy Paper Dolls in a pastelly outfit combined with white and I ended up really liking my outfit!

One of the other models ended up wearing Fancy Paper Dolls too actually! I wasn’t really sure whether that would be nice, but since she had it in a different colourway, different cut and was representing a different style than me it was actually quite cool after all. ^^
I took the train to The Hague on my own. Ah actually, I wasn’t alone at all, for I had my cute new Loppy with me! It’s just so soft and snuggly and adorable! I love it so much~! ♥

Just chilling with my Loppy in the train. 8D

I was supposed to meet my friend Iris at The Hague central station, but unfortunately she had to take a detour thanks to train problems. So I arrived on my own and despite having looked up which tram to take I decided to follow some cosplayers. Worst idea ever! Turns out they took the wrong tram and we ended up at the beach! It also started to rain, so I put on the extra dress I had brought over my Lolita dress. The cosplayers in question thought it was hilarious, but all I could see were hyperactive and annoying teenagers. ^^’ Oh well, I should have used my own brains.

Taking the (wrong) tram.

After taking a bus I finally arrived at the World Forum and went to find the right line to show my ticket and ask whether I could take my bag with petticoat etc inside with me (which was okay). I had never been to the World Forum or Animecon and it had been quite a while since my last convention. I was a little tired, so all the people and the noise were quite overwhelming. Luckily, I soon found some of the other girls participating in the fashion show and joined them.
Soon we were joined by more girl and allowed into the room. I was surprised by the size of the room and stage! It looked very nice.
I can’t really say much about the rehearsal of the fashion show itself I’m afraid. We practised. Then it was time for the show and we showed off our outfits, haha! XD The show was built around a story: one girl played ‘the dream model’, the girl who was dreaming about different worlds and our outfits portrayed those different worlds.

Some scenes of the J-fashion show.

After the show, we all sat down on the edge of the stage and the audience got to ask questions if they wanted to. There were actually quite a lot of people! I was pleasantly surprised. After the Q&A, the lights went on and we took some group pictures. ^^

The J-fashion show group. ♥

Since there were several little groups of styles, we also took a Lolitas only group picture! We were with quite a lot and many styles were represented. ^^

The Lolitas of the J-fashion show group. ^^

After the fashion show a small group of us decided to check out the dealer room together. I wasn’t particularly interested in anything other than one stall: Dolly House! Dolly House makes adorable jewelry and when I saw the owner posting on her Instagram about being at Animecon I freaked out! I had to go to their stall!
A small group of us went to the dealer room. Some had to hand in their bags so we waited for a bit and then we joined some other friends to browse for a bit. We soon found the Dolly House stall (which wasn’t hard to find since it stands out a lot with all the colours) and I happily browsed the adorable goods!

The amazing goods at the Dolly House stall.

There were so many cute items, I just didn’t know where to look! Luckily, I have learned how to separate the items you really want from the ones you think you want. 8D Colourful stalls can almost literally hypnotize you, so taking the item in your hand and holding it up to the ceiling where there is no pastel rainbow to distract you makes you focus on the item
itself. ^^ But I still ended up with several items, haha!
The Dolly House owner was absolutely adorable by the way!

The adorable owner of Dolly House. ♥

That is actually all I have left to talk about. The dealer room was nice and I went back a second time to the Dolly House stall and bought some more things. I even got a free bear ring, so sweet! I also took some pictures with Anna at a photobooth. After that, I went home. It had been a nice day, but very hot and very crowded. It was a bit too much for me in the end. But enjoyable nonetheless. ^^

Saturday, July 16, 2016

On Sunday May 29th my friend Katie from Summer Tales Boutique organized a summer Tea Party! The name of the Tea Party was ‘Sparkly Stars at Summer Sky’, so the theme was everything stars, sky and summer.
Unfortunately, I don’t own anything in theme and couldn’t come up with something creative, so instead I decided to redo an outfit I had worn a couple of years earlier: Milky-chan of the Fawn combined with sax blue. This was my outfit, I hope you like it. ^^

The Tea Party was held at the Summer Tales Boutique Shop as usual, but getting there was quite an adventure. The Dutch railways always have some kind of construction going on and this weekend was no exception. Going to the store by train was no option, so I took a train to Utrecht Central Station and met up with a group of Lolitas there. From there, we took one of the special buses to Houten. I was afraid it would be stressful, but I had a lovely conversation with cute Mairin. :3
From station Houten we walked to the store (which was further than I remembered, ugh).
When we arrived at the store, I finished my outfit (I had walked without a petticoat and with a big black vest on because I didn’t want to stand out while being alone) and then sat at a table with some of my dear friends. ♥
Katie welcomed everyone, talked a bit about her new collection (she showed some gorgeous boleros that I completely fell in love with and super cute Poteusa Loppy backpacks that are just too cute for words) and then the Tea Party started. First everyone just socialized, took pictures and shopped for a bit in the shop. There were a lot of lovely outfits present as usual. Here are some of them. ^^

Finally, it was time for food! The food at Summer Tales Boutique Tea Parties is always so great! Katie’s boyfriend spends like three days in the kitchen before a Tea Party and the food is always so delicious! This time was no exception: the food was better than ever! And there was so much, it was amazing!

Some of the amazing food at the Tea Party.

After eating delicious food and drinking tea lots of people went outside again to take pictures and talk. I didn’t take many pictures on this Tea Party, but here are some lovely portraits anyway.

Some very lovely ladies. ♥

It was very nice to see how everyone had incorporated the theme. Some decided to go with stars, others went for a more summery look. Or they went the way I did: nothing matching the theme at all. x)

More lovely ladies. ♥

We are used to having Belgians attend Summer Tales Boutique Tea Parties as well as the Dutch Lolitas, but this time two German girls joined us as well! I was super happy my dear friend Allegra and her friend Karin came to the Tea Party. Allegra is just adorable (and has the most beautiful hair) and I was very happy to get to know Karin a lot more as well! ♥

We went inside again because it was time for the raffle! I didn’t win anything, but some other lucky people did. ^^ After that, it was time for the outfit contest! The five contestants were chosen by motivation before and at the Tea Party they got to tell everyone about their outfit and why it matched the theme.

The contestants talking about their outfits.

It was very interesting to hear all the motivations and ideas behind the outfits. We then received a piece of paper and got to vote for our favourite.
It was hard to choose only one! *_*

The five amazing outfit contestants.

The Tea Party was coming to an end and we all went outside for a group picture. This always takes such organization, aaah! XD But we managed. ^^

The guests of the Sparkly Stars at Summer Sky Tea Party.

The Tea Party had come to an end and people started leaving. My mom was really kind to come and pick me up by car, but not before I showed her the new Poteusa Loppy backpacks. Eventually, somehow someone got home with us, haha! x) ♥
The Tea Party had been great and I was very happy to see so many girls of the Dutch Lolita community again. Thank you all for a great day!

Disclaimer

Header and background art by Angelic Pretty.

All writing and most of the photographs are mine and may not be reproduced elsewhere without my permission (or at least back link it). This blog expresses the opinions of one girl. I am not affiliated with any companies. Most photographs are my own with the exception of a few. I do not take credit for those.